We support $100 million for the Housing Production Trust Fund

May 19, 2015

Thanks to the over 100 organizations and hundreds of individuals who signed on to support the Housing Production Trust Fund! We have shared the letter and your names with the DC Council and will continue to encourage them to invest in the Trust Fund and other affordable housing programs at our Advocacy Day and on the budget vote day May 27. Download the full letter with organizations and individual signatures here.

Dear Members of the Council of the District of Columbia,

Fund $100 million in the Housing Production Trust Fund this year.

The DC Council should continue to lead the District to invest in affordable homes in our communities. As you make final decisions on the District’s budget, we urge the Council to affirm the commitment made in the Housing Production Trust Fund Baseline Funding Amendment Act of 2014 and ensure $100 million remains in the Housing Production Trust Fund in the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget.

Since 2002, the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) has been providing affordable homes to thousands of District residents. Unfortunately, it has not had consistent funding during that time, and the ability of the Housing Production Trust Fund to keep affordable homes in our communities and build new ones has waxed and waned. With housing costs rising and District residents forced to leave, pay more than half their income in rent, or seek services from our homeless shelter system, we urge the Council to ensure that the District invests in developing and preserving affordable homes.

The Housing Production Trust Fund is key to the preservation and development of homes District residents can afford.

It has produced and preserved over 8,500 affordable homes across every ward in the District. There are over 3,400 more affordable homes in the pipeline with Trust Fund commitments.

HPTF funds the creation and preservation of a Continuum of Housing including affordable rental, homeownership, cooperatives, and supportive housing in all eight wards.

All funds directed to HPTF in previous budgets have already been committed to affordable homes in projects that have been assessed by DHCD.

HPTF is crucial to meet the District’s long-term goals of addressing homelessness through permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless and providing affordable units for homeless individuals and families.

Funding from HPTF is used to purchase and rehab deeply affordable and federally subsided buildings.

A successful preservation strategy relies on HPTF to keep District residents in their homes and keep costs low in the long term.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call on the Council to invest $100 million in the Housing Production Trust Fund in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget.

Housing for All Blog is a project of the Housing For All Campaign. We believe all District residents deserve decent, quality housing at a price they can afford, and call on District officials to create a full Continuum of Housing that will meet that need.